This paper describes depth, heading and speed control of an underwater vehicle that has four stern thrusters of which forces are coupled in the diving and, steering motion, as well as the speed of the vehicle. The optimal linear quadratic controller is designed based on a linearized- state space model, developed by combining the dynamic equations of speed, steering and diving motion. The designed controller gives provides an optimal thrust distribution, minimizing the given performance index to control speed, depth and heading simultaneously. To validate the performance of the controller, a simulation and tank-test are carried out with DUSAUV (Dual Use Semi-Autonomous Underwater Vehicle), developed by KORDI as a test-bed for testing new underwater technologies. Optimal gains of the controller are tuned, using a computer simulation environment with a nonlinear 6-DOF numerical DUSAUV model, developed by PMM (Planner Motion Mechanism) test. To verify the performance of the presented controller in experiment, a tank-test with DUSAUV is carried out in the ocean engineering basin in KORDI. The experimental results are also compared with the simulation results to investigate the accordance of the numerical and the real mode